The present invention relates to fish processing and more particularly to a method and apparatus for cleaning and filleting fish.
Various types of automatic machines have been developed for cleaning and filleting fish. These fish filleting machines include various mechanisms for removing the viscera, bones and undesirable belly meat. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,902,222, 3,955,242, 4,008,509, 4,056,866 and 4,236,275. A machine such as that shown in Cooper, U.S. Pat. No. 1,267,850 cuts open the belly and then utilizes entrail wiping brushes to eviserate the fish. Brushes, however, are difficult to clean and may transport contaminants from one fish to other successive fish. Another machine, such as that shown in Oates, U.S. Pat. No. 3,469,278 utilizes a pair of angle cleaning wheels to eviserate fish. The cleaning wheels in Oates have rounded teeth to avoid tearing the surface of the belly cavity. However, due to the difficulty of properly positioning different size fish with respect to cleaning and cutting devices, meat loss problems have remained. Meat loss problems are especially acute on machines for filleting fish such as cod, pollack and whiting since it is necessary to remove not only their backbone and ribs, but also their pinbones and belly meat.
More recent machines have been developed that incorporate sophisticated electronic controls for controlling the position of cleaning and cutting devices with respect to the fish being processed within the machine. However, such machines are expensive to manufacture, difficult to start up, and expensive to maintain.